Five Steps To Make a Negative Employee Positive
Negativism can eat away at your workforce if left unchecked and lead to
dissent if met with ruthless intolerance. But when they're turned around in
a constructive fashion, negative individuals, teams, and organizations can
be put back on the road to recovery. Even though every employee expresses
negativity in a different way, here's a general strategy for working with
negative individuals:
- Recognize that an attitude problem exists. The first step is to recognize
that someone is expressing negativity in the workplace. Do not ignore it if
it is affecting that person's performance, your performance, the performance
of others or relationships with your clients or customers.
- Acknowledge any underlying causes for the negative attitude. As we know,
negativity has many causes. The factors could include personal problems,
work related stress, a difficult boss, job insecurity, loss of loyalty, lack
of growth or advancement opportunities, and so forth. It helps to get the
person to see the causes for his or her negativity. It is also important to
recognize that what is causing the negativity is often justified and that
the negativist has the right to feel that way.
- Help the person take responsibility. It is ultimately the responsibility
of the negative person to change his or her negative attitude and behaviors
at work. Even though the person may have every right to feel the way he or
she does, it is still not appropriate for the workplace. As a team member or
boss, you need to help your colleague recognize this and have him or her
take ownership.
- Replace negative, inappropriate reactions with different, more acceptable
ones. Even though we just said that it is the job of the negativist to
change his or her actions, you may need to help. The person may not know
what to do differently to come across as more positive. It will often be up
to you to specify exactly what that is.
- Instill positive attitudes in others. Be the role model for your
negativists through your actions and behaviors. You can prevent their
negativity by instilling in them the positivist bug. If you do that, they
may never catch the negativity virus again.
-- From "Managing Workplace Negativity," which can be purchased through the
SOCAP International Resource Center Bookstore.
